Redirection of circulating blood cells by peristalsis in a Drosophila third-instar larva. Live visualization of blood cells within the open body cavity of a Nrg-GFP/;PxnYFP/ larva. Blood-cell flow is generally posteriorward but peristaltic contractions lead to transient redirection of the cells. Time between frames, 0.44 s. Total duration, 10 s. Movie is Movie S4 of Proc Natl Acad Sci (2008). 105: 10017-10022. Movies from this publication include CIL #s 25607, 25608, 25609, 25610, 25611, 25612, 25613, 25614, 25615, 25616, 25617.

Technical Details

Third-instar [w, Nrg-GFP;Pxn-Gal4, UAS-2xeYFP] larvae were mounted dorsal side up on a glass slide with the anterior and posterior ends of the larvae taped down to varying degrees to prevent locomotion. Larvae were imaged on a Leica MZ16FA fluorescent steromicroscope using a Planapo 1.0× objective, and images were captured on a monochrome Leica DFC350FX digital camera. For real-time recording of larval circulation, frames were captured every ≈400 ms over a 4- to 40-s period. Images were obtained by using the Scope-Pro Advanced Acquisition plug-in, and image analysis was carried out with Image-Pro AMS ver. 5.1 Software (Media Cybernetics).